Fed plagued by doubts in 2010, transcripts show

JohnHilsenrath

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Federal Reserve Board Chairman Janet Yellen an a strong supporter for more quantitative easing in the summer of 2010.

Janet Yellen, then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, pushed the central bank hard in the summer of 2010 to launch a new effort to boost a sagging U.S. economy mired in high unemployment and too-low inflation.

“I consider it critical at this juncture that this [Fed] not be perceived as falling behind the curve, being unwilling to act, or being out of touch with the mounting concerns we see in the markets and on Main Street,” Yellen said at a closed-door policy meeting in August 2010, as the Fed considered new steps to boost growth.

“The data show a considerable slowing of the economy during the summer,” Yellen said, “and the near-term outlook has been marked down appreciably.”

Her remarks appeared within the 1,605 pages of transcripts of the Fed’s 2010 policy meetings, which were posted to its website Friday. The central bank releases transcripts of its meetings with a five-year lag.

Yellen would become the Fed’s vice chairwoman in October 2010 and its leader in February 2014. The transcripts shine a light on the behind-the-scenes role she played in pushing the Fed’s controversial easy-money policies. Fed officials were plagued with doubts in 2010 about whether their efforts to boost the economy were working and about the risks of unintended consequences, like runaway inflation or a tumbling dollar.

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